In a typical gas burning appliance, e.g. an oven, it must be ensured that ignition of the flow of gas will occur to avoid the hazardous scenario of supplying gas without it simultaneously being burned off. To achieve this, a number of components are utilized. Among these components, a pressure regulator is required to regulate the pressure incoming flow of gas supplied to a downstream burner. Additionally, and between the pressure regulator and the burner, a gas valve is provided which is responsible for opening and closing gas flow to one or more burners, and can also be utilized for governing the amount of flow to the burners to ensure a desired cooking temperature is achieved.
The aforementioned configuration also typically includes safety measures to ensure that gas will not be supplied to the burners in the event that ignition of such gas is not assured. As one example, the valve may be electrically coupled to an igniter. In the event the igniter is hot enough to ignite gas, the electrical current flow to the valve sufficient to cause it to open. In the event that the igniter is not hot enough to ignite the gas flowing to the burners, the valve will remain closed.
Gas appliance manufacturers typically purchase the above valves and pressure regulators and assemble the same to provide an appliance to the end user. However, such components are typically provided separately and thus require an additional assembly step at the appliance manufacturer. Because the pressure regulator and valve are typically not supplied by the same manufacturer, they often times include universal mating interfaces so that they may be readily joined to one another.
Unfortunately, the applicants herein have discovered that this universal mating interface may lead to failure at the interface when the end user gas line is installed at the pressure regulator inlet. Indeed, the torque applied when installing the end user gas line has been found to produce relatively high shear forces on the mounting hardware at the universal interface between the pressure regulator and valve leading to breakage of this hardware and/or other portions of the pressure regulator-valve assembly.
Further, the manufacture of the above described valves can be relatively complex in that the same require producing a housing, subsequently machining the housing so that the valve componentry may be mounted therein, installing the valve componentry within the housing, and also installing on the housing additional bracketing for mounting the valve within the appliance interior. Such a process is labor and cost intensive, ultimately increasing end user cost in purchasing the appliance.
As such, there is a need in the art for a gas valve assembly that includes an integrated pressure regulator and includes provisions for accommodating the torque applied to the regulator to mitigate the above shear forces. There is also a need in the art for a gas valve assembly with integrated pressure regulator that presents a reduced cost and labor effort in its manufacture.
The invention provides such a gas valve assembly. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.